Our research

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is at the forefront of world-leading research in a wide range of disciplines. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 88% of our research was judged of being world-leading or of international quality. Virtually all staff were returned in the exercise, showing that we have quality right across the board. This strong performance reflected the results of a long period of investment, strengthening and expansion, and provides the springboard for a strong performance in the forthcoming research excellence framework. 

School staff currently hold over £6 million in research grants from AHRC, ESRC, Wellcome, Leverhulme and other leading funders. We run numerous seminars, workshops and conferences, and host several international journals. Currently, we have around 320 postgraduate research students and about 20 research fellows and assistants.

Disciplinary and interdisciplinary research

The School covers a wide range of academic disciplines. Our component departments represent an even larger number of disciplines and sub-disciplines. But our research also synergises strongly across disciplinary divides; interdisciplinarity is a key element of our activity. This is seen most obviously through the activities of our research centres, and through our involvement in wider initiatives such as the Environment and Sustainability Institute in Cornwall and the Climate Change strand of the University’s Science Strategy, but it is a major part of our research activity more broadly. 

Research centres

The School is host to around 20 research centres. The ESRC-funded Exeter Centre for the Study of Genomics in Society, is a world-leading body in its field. The Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies is an exciting initiative dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of ethno-politics. Centres offer considerable expertise in a wide range of areas and are ideally placed to link up with external bodies such as businesses and charities in research and knowledge transfer.

Research degrees

The School is home to around 320  research students and 270 Masters students, many of whom will go on to pursue research degrees. This thriving postgraduate community is closely related to the overall research activity within the School and its departments and centres. Studying for a PhD means working at the forefront of academic discovery, and can be the prelude to an academic career or the basis for a successful career outside academia.  Find our more about postgraduate research including our MPhil/PhD and MA by Research degrees.

Impact

All our research has an impact. Its academic impact can be seen through the high achievement of our units at 4* and 3* in the 2008 RAE. But our work has much wider economic, social and cultural impacts as well, because, as we recognise, great research brings great benefits to society